Black walnut tree named ‘Beineke 4’

ABSTRACT

A new and distinct cultivar of black walnut tree ( Juglans nigra  L.) which is distinctly characterized by extremely rapid growth rate, very strong central stem tendency, and excellent straightness, thereby producing excellent timber qualities. This new variety of black walnut tree ( Juglans nigra  L.) was discovered by the applicant near South Raub, Tippecanoe County, Ind. in a black walnut planting of seedling progeny from a previously selected tree for outstanding timber producing potential. This selection has been designated as BW500, a seedling progeny of BW 249 in records maintained by the applicant on the performance of the selection and grafts made from the selection and will be known henceforth as ‘Beineke 4.’

Latin name of the genus and species: Juglans nigra L.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This new variety of black walnut tree (Juglans nigra L.) was discoveredby the applicant near South Raub, Tippecanoe County, Ind. in a blackwalnut planting of seedling progeny from previously selected trees foroutstanding timber producing potential. This selection has beendesignated as BW500, a seedling progeny of BW 249 (unpatented) inrecords maintained by the applicant on the performance of the selectionand grafts made from the selection and will be known henceforth as‘Beineke 4.’ The male parent is unknown, as is generally the case withblack walnut trees (Beineke, 1989).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A new and distinct cultivar of black walnut tree (Juglans nigra L.) isdistinctly characterized by extremely rapid growth rate, very strongcentral stem tendency, and excellent straightness, thereby producingexcellent timber qualities at 7 years. Beineke 4 was 7 years old whendescribed at South Raub, Ind.

After the original clone was selected, and assigned an identity numberof BW500 the aforesaid tree was reproduced by collecting scions from itand grafting these onto common black walnut rootstocks at AmericanForestry Technology Company, West Point, Ind. These asexualreproductions ran true to the original tree and to each other in allrespects. Comparisons of BW 249 with Beineke 4 at this location were notmade because no BW 249 trees were planted at this site, and the parenttree was cut down.

Color values used were from the Munsell Color Chart for Plant Tissues.However, color is too dependent on weather conditions and fertilizationto be consistent or distinctive. For example, leaves can be made adeeper green by applying nitrogen. Walnut tree leaves turn yellow as theseason progresses, especially if there is a lack of rainfall. As blackwalnut meats dry, they become darker. Simply being on the ground for aweek causes the outer shell to darken. Bark color involves many shadesof gray through brown and black.

Beineke 4 is hardy in zones 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a photograph showing the timber form of ‘Beineke 4.’

FIG. 2 is a photograph showing the leaves of ‘Beineke 4.’

FIG. 3 is a photograph showing the nuts of ‘Beineke 4.’

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PLANT

The botanical details of this new and distinct variety of walnut treeare as follows:

Tree:

Size.—Large, 26 ft. at 7 years; crown diameter is 13 ft.

Vigor.—Vigorous.

Growth rate.—Very rapid, 37% larger in diameter than the average ofPurdue 1 (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,543) grafts, planted the same year onthe same land. Diameter growth rate (at 4½ feet above the ground)averages 0.743 inches per year over 7 years, to 5.2 inches.

Form.—Excellent timber form, as good as Purdue 1 (U.S. Plant Pat. No.4,543), 57% straighter than average of the entire planting. Stem formwas obtained by subjectively rating the straightness of the main stem ona scale of 1 to 5 with 1 representing a perfectly straight stem; 2,slight crook or deviation of the central stem; 3, about averagestraightness; 4, several severe crooks or a single fork; and 5, a verycrooked, forked and/or leaning central stem. Beineke 4 averages 1. Thetrees of the present invention are grown in plantations, not open fields(not natural stands). In plantations, trees are upright and have nodistinctive or characteristic crown shape because all branches areseeking to grow upwards.

Branches: Diameter depends on age and size of tree, varies from ½″ to12″, bark color varies from grays to browns.

Leaves:

Compound leaves.—Size — Shorter than average; average length —13.60″.

Leaflets.—Size — Smaller than average; average length — 3.48″; averagewidth — 2.9″; average number of leaflets — 18.0 — lanceolate; acutelypointed, rounded base; Petiole— short.

Thickness—Thin; Texture — smooth; Margin — serrated; Color — Topside —dark green, (2.5 G 4/4 on the Munsell Color Chart); Underside — lightgreen, (5GY5/4 on the Munsell Color Chart for Plant Tissues).

Anthracnose resistance.—Good.

Nut:

Size.—Small; average length — 1.33″; average diameter in suture plane —1.10″; average diameter cheek to cheek — 1.37″.

Uniformity of size.—Not much variation.

Form.—Rounded; flattened in suture plane. See FIG. 3.

Blossom end.—Pointed.

Basal end.—Slightly pointed to rounded.

Thickness of shell.—Thick.

Ridges.—Sharp.

Color.—Mottled, 5 YR 3/2 and 2.5 YR 3/4 on the Munsell Color Chart.

Flowering habit:

Age at which trees start producing catkins.—Early, it takes about 4-5years to flower, but the flower number varies with the age of the tree.

Number of catkins produced.—Abundant.

Age at which tree starts producing pistillate flowers.—Early, about 4-5years.

Number of pistillate flowers produced by young trees.—Abundant.

Number of pistillate flowers produced by mature trees.—Abundant.

Lateral shoots producing pistillate flowers.—Few.

Number of pistillate flowers per inflorescence.—2 to 4.

Flowering season: Flowers typically in May in Indiana. There areprobably 1- million pollen per catkin. Female flowers are about{fraction (1/16)}″ long and grow to two “pollen pick up point” whichsubsequently break apart. Pollen exits as “dust” which is not feasibleto quantitate.

Nut crop:

Bearing.—Annual.

Productivity.—Heavy.

Ripening period.—Late, September-October.

Evenness of maturity (period between first and last nuts are ready forharvest). —Even.

Quality.—Good.

Distribution of nuts on tree.—Throughout.

GENETIC METHOD OF IDENTIFICATION

DNA “fingerprint” for identification of Beineke 4:

DNA was isolated from the leaves of Beineke 4. For purposes of DNAfingerprinting, nine highly polymorphic loci from a suite ofmicrosatellites developed by Woeste et al. (2002) were chosen.Microsatellites sizes were checked against previously publishedstandards and verified by a second independent analysis. The“fingerprint” is the collection of microsatellite allele sizes at eachlocus for Beineke 4.

DNA was isolated from the leaves of 10 black walnut trees obtained fromWalter Beineke using CTAB extraction buffer (50 mM TRIS-HCL, pH 8.0, 20mM EDTA, pH 8.0, 0.7 M NaCl, 0.4 M LiCl, 2% SDS, 2% TAB, nd 1% PVP).After isolation the DNA from each tree was quantified and diluted withnanopure distilled water to a final concentration of 5 ng/μL. Thesamples were stored in 96-well plates at 20° C.

For purposes of DNA fingerprinting, nine highly polymorphic loci from asuite of microsatellites developed by Woeste et al. (2002) were chosen.Amplification of each locus was performed with an MJ Research TetradThermocycler (Waltham, Mass.) using 10 μL reactions in 96-well plates.The PCR reaction mix contained 2 μL of the aforementioned black walnutDNA, 5 μL Sigma Taq ReadyMix (Sigma Aldrich, St. Louis, Mo.), 0.4 μL ofa 20 pmol mixture of forward and reverse fluorescence labeled primer,and 3 μL PCR grade water supplied with the Sigma ReadyMix. PCRamplification was for 30 cycles of 94° C. for 20 sec, 55° C. for 30 sec,and 72° C. for 1 min. All primers were annealed at 55° C. The productswere then held at 4° C. until aliquots could be loaded into 6% LongRanger (polyacrylamide) denaturing gels (BMA, Rockland, Me.). For eachindividual 0.5 μL PCR product was added to 0.75 μL blue dextran and 0.25μL of CXR 350 bp Ladder Standard (Promega, Fitchburg Center, Wis.) in anew 96-well 1 late. The samples were denatured for 2 min at 95° C. andloaded onto a CAL96 96-well laminated membrane comb (The Gel Company,San Francisco, Calif.). Electrophoresis was at 3,000 V, 60 mA, 200Watts, 50° C. for 2 hours using an ABI 377 (Perkin Elmer) with 36 cmplates and 0.2 mm spacers. The resulting data was analyzed using ABI'sGeneScan 3.1.2 and Genotyper 2.5 (Perkin Elmer). Microsatellite sizeswere checked against previously published standards and verified by asecond independent analysis. The “fingerprint” is the collection ofmicrosatellite allele sizes at each locus for each tree.

Locus Forward WGA2 GACGACGAAGGTGTACGGAT (SEQ ID NO: 1) WGA6CCATGAAACTTCATGCGTTG (SEQ ID NO: 2) WGA24 TCCCCCTGAAATCTTCTCCT (SEQ IDNO: 3) WGA32 CTCGGTAAGCCACACCAATT (SEQ ID NO: 4) WG33TGGTCTGCGAAGACACTGTC (SEQ ID NO: 5) WGA86 ATGCCTCATCTCCATTCTGG (SEQ IDNO: 6) WGA89 ACCCATCTTTCACGTGTGTG (SEQ ID NO: 7) WGA90CTTGTAATCGCCCTCTGCTC (SEQ ID NO: 8) WGA97 GGAGAGGAAAGGAATCCAAA (SEQ IDNO: 9) Locus Reverse WGA2 GTACGGCTCTCCTTGCAGTC (SEQ ID NO: 10) WGA6CATCCCAAGCGAAGGTTG   (SEQ ID NO: 11) WGA24 TTCTCGTGGTGCTTGTTGAG (SEQ IDNO: 12) WGA32 ACGGGCAGTGTATGCATGTA (SEQ ID NO: 13) WG33GGTTCGTCGTTTGTTGACCT (SEQ ID NO: 14) WGA86 TGAGTGGCAATCACAAGGAA (SEQ IDNO: 15) WGA89 TGCCTAATTAGCAATTTCCA (SEQ ID NO: 16) WGA90TACCTGCAACCCGTTACACA (SEQ ID NO: 17) WGA97 TTGAACAAAAGGCCGTTTTC (SEQ IDNO: 18)

The best interpretation of the current data indicates that theprobability that any other black walnut tree would have the collectionof microsatellite allele sizes listed is less that 1 in 10⁻¹⁷.

Sizes (bp) of microsatellites at 9 loci used to fingerprint ‘Beineke 4’(2 alleles at each locus)

WGA2 WGA6 WGA24 WGA32 WGA90 168 168 142 142 234 240 171 207 152 160WGA86 WGA97 WGA33 WGA89 220 234 153 155 208 208 187 197

DOCUMENTS CITED

Beineke, Walter F. (1989) Twenty years of black walnut geneticimprovement at Purdue University North. J. Appl. For. 6:68-71.

Woeste, K., Burns, R., Rhodes, O., and Michler, C. (2002) Thirtypolymorphic nuclear microsatellite loci from black walnut. Journal ofHeredity.

18 1 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description of Artificial SequencePrimer 1 gacgacgaag gtgtacggat 20 2 20 DNA Artificial SequenceDescription of Artificial Sequence Primer 2 ccatgaaact tcatgcgttg 20 320 DNA Artificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 3tccccctgaa atcttctcct 20 4 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 4 ctcggtaagc cacaccaatt 20 5 20 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 5tggtctgcga agacactgtc 20 6 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 6 atgcctcatc tccattctgg 20 7 20 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 7acccatcttt cacgtgtgtg 20 8 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 8 cttgtaatcg ccctctgctc 20 9 20 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 9ggagaggaaa ggaatccaaa 20 10 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 10 gtacggctct ccttgcagtc 20 11 18 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 11catcccaagc gaaggttg 18 12 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 12 ttctcgtggt gcttgttgag 20 13 20 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 13acgggcagtg tatgcatgta 20 14 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 14 ggttcgtcgt ttgttgacct 20 15 20 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 15tgagtggcaa tcacaaggaa 20 16 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 16 tgcctaatta gcaatttcca 20 17 20 DNAArtificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequence Primer 17tacctgcaac ccgttacaca 20 18 20 DNA Artificial Sequence Description ofArtificial Sequence Primer 18 ttgaacaaaa ggccgttttc 20

I claim:
 1. A new and distinct variety of black walnut tree named‘Beineke 4’ substantially as illustrated and described, which hasexcellent timber quality, is fast growing, has strong central stemtendency, no sweep, no crooks.